Too many people know the situation — you’re walking down the street, enjoying a cup of coffee and minding your own business, when a string of words curls through the air and smacks you in the face. Sometimes it’s lewd language that feels so upsetting; sometimes the words could be perceived as a compliment in another context, but the fact that they were uttered by a stranger feels like an affront.

Street harassment never sat well with Emily May. But in 2005, she was encouraged by a woman who took a photo of a man who was masturbating in a subway car and leering at her. The image quickly went viral, leading to the man’s arrest. Seeing how the tables could be turned on a harasser, May co-founded Hollaback!, a blog dedicated to photos and stories of street harassment.

“We wanted to take the focus off of the woman and onto the harasser,” explains May. “When you’re being harassed the lens is on you. We want to turn it back around and put it onto them.”

In 2010, Hollaback! released an iPhone and Android app that allows users to mark the locations where they were harassed on a Google map, as well as to share the story. The app not only allows girls, women, and members of the LGBTQ community to flip power dynamics, it also collects data on street harassment in a way never done before. The success of the app forced New York City to take note, and it has since been linked up with the city’s 311 information line. Hollaback! hopes to form similar partnerships in cities around the world.

Hollaback!, and May as its executive director, have been named the latest winner of The City 2.0 award. Want to hear more about the organization? Coincidentally, May will be speaking at TEDxWomen today, December 1, curated by The Paley Center for Media. May will be speaking during session four, “The Mirror.” Watch the livestream of the session at 2pm EST >>

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As the world’s population expands toward 10 billion people within the next 50 years, urban citizens face an unprecedented opportunity to build more vibrant, just and inclusive urban centers. Because we know that cities are powered by people, and people enable change, TED responded to the rapidly changing urban landscape by granting the 2012 TED Prize to […]

In 2012, the TED Prize was awarded to an idea: The City2.0, a place to celebrate actions taken by citizens around the world to make their cities more livable, beautiful and sustainable. This week, The City2.0 website evolves. On the relaunched TEDCity2.org, you’ll find great talks on topics like housing, education and food, and how […]

symes4ucommented on Dec 2 2012

I especially enjoy people who share their credit card numbers while ordering items on their cell phones while riding public transportation. I once even heard a social security number tossed out in the same manner. Really.

regnistegg999commented on Dec 1 2012

I read about the woman who photographed the guy masturbating on the subway and at a later date, remembered her doing this and used my cell phone to good advantage to get 2 bums off my front porch. From my 2nd storey window, I asked them to leave. They gave me a lot of lip. I told them I was giving them to the count of 3 to leave and held out my cell phone at the ready to take a photo. They left immediately. IMO, one great reason to have a cell phone, as a tool of self-preservation.